The 22-year-old is out of contract at the end of the season, and has fallen well down Arsene Wenger’s list of central midfielders. He has not played for the first team this season.

According to Sky Sports, the Ghana international could now be on his way out of North London, with interest from Premier League and Championship clubs.

Frimpong has been with Arsenal since the age of nine, when he enrolled at the academy alongside Jack Wilshere. He made his Premier League debut for Arsenal against Newcastle United in August 2011, and was expected to continue to make an impact.

His early form for Arsenal reserves saw comparisons with Chelsea’s Michael Essien. However, despite showing glimpses of promise on the pitch, Frimpong has made headlines for the wrong reasons this season.

In October, he sparked a race row on Twitter by suggesting that he would have more chance of playing for Arsenal if he was white and English. Two months later, he suggested that he would deliberately injure Arsenal team-mates Mesut Ozil, Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker so they missed this summer’s World Cup.

And earlier this month he was at it again, mocking Manchester United manager David Moyes using Instagram after United were beaten 2-1 by Sunderland in the Capital One Cup.

All that comes after he was charged with improper conduct by the FA in 2012, and fined £6,000, for comments made to a Tottenham Hotspur fan.

Such incidents irritated his manager and have not helped his chances of breaking into the first team, indeed he has made only six appearances for the Gunners, with Wenger instead preferring to send the controversial midfielder on loan to Wolves, Charlton and Fulham.